What the Psychic Told the Pilgrim: A Midlife Misadventure on Spain's Camino de Santiago de Compostela

To celebrate her 50th birthday and face the challenges of midlife, Jane Christmas joins 14 women to hike the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. Despite a psychic's warning of catfights, death, and a sexy, fair-haired man, Christmas soldiers on. After a week of squabbles, the group splinters, and the real adventure begins. In vivid, witty style, she recounts her battles with loneliness, hallucinations of being joined by Steve Martin, as well as picturesque villages and even the fair-haired man.

The Pilgrimage

Step inside this captivating account of Paulo Coehlo's pilgrimage along the road to Santiago. This fascinating parable explores the need to find one's own path. In the end, we discover that the extraordinary is always found in the ordinary and simple ways of everyday people. Part adventure story, part guide to self-discovery, this compelling tale delivers the perfect combination of enchantment and insight.

Sunrises to Santiago: Searching for Purpose on the Camino de Santiago

After spending his 20s traveling the world and hopping from job to job, Gabriel Schirm was lost. At 32 years old, he desperately needed to find direction and meaningful purpose in his life. With no physical training, he decided his answers were waiting for him somewhere along the historic 490-mile pilgrimage route called the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

Walking the Camino: A Modern Pilgrimage to Santiago

In May 2006, armed only with a small rucksack and a staff, Tony Kevin, an overweight, sedentary, 63-year-old former diplomat, set off on an eight-week trek across Spain. But this was not just a very long walk — it was a pilgrimage. From Granada, in the southeast, to Santiago de Compostela, in the far northwest, Tony followed the Via Mozarabe and the Via de la Plata, two of the many pilgrim trails that crisscross Spain and Portugal and that all lead to a single destination.

Ancient Wonderings: Journeys into Prehistoric Britain

Take a journey into our ancient past. Explore a long-lost landscape and gradually discover the minds, beliefs and cultural practices of those souls who lived on these lands thousands of years before you. Travelling the length and breadth of Britain, James Canton pursues his obsession with the physical traces of the ancient world: stone circles, flint arrowheads, sacred stones, gold, and a lost Roman road.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World

How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.

The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot

In The Old Ways, Robert Macfarlane sets off from his Cambridge home to follow the ancient tracks, holloways, drove-roads, and sea paths that form part of a vast network of routes crisscrossing the British landscape and its waters, and connecting them to the continents beyond. The result is an immersive, enthralling exploration of the ghosts and voices that haunt old paths, of the stories our tracks keep and tell, of pilgrimage and ritual, and of song lines and their singers. Above all this is a book about people and place.

Audible Originals takes to the high seas to bring to life this timeless tale of pirates, lost treasure maps and mutiny. When weathered old sailor Billy Bones arrives at the inn of young Jim Hawkins' parents, it is the start of an adventure beyond anything he could have imagined. When Bones dies mysteriously, Jim stumbles across a map of a mysterious island in his sea chest, where X marks the spot of a stash of buried pirate gold.

In The Dolphin's Wake: Cocktails, Calamities, and Caiques in the Greek Islands

An amusing and erudite account of Harry Bucknall's 183-day journey through the Greek islands from Venice, in the West, to Istanbul, in the East.

In the summer of 2006, Harry Bucknall travelled from Venice to Istanbul - a journey across the Aegean of more than 5,500 miles that included the glories of Mount Athos, 36 islands, and every island chain in the Greek Archipelago. Recounted with humour, pathos, and at times drama, this is not only a journey through the Greek islands but also a journey through Greek history, mythology, custom, and folklore.

The Path

The Path is the story of a group of international travellers who walk the Camino de Santiago, the ancient 800-kilometre pilgrimage from the Pyrenees to the remains of the Apostle Saint James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella in Northern Spain. The group are of all ages, all professions, all religious denominations (and none).

From Here to There

In April 2008, Jon Faine and his son Jack closed the door on their Melbourne home and, leaving jobs, studies, family and friends, took six months and went overland to London in their trusty 4-wheel-drive. This intelligent and funny recount of the countries they visited, people they met, and trouble they got into, is also the story of a tender father-son relationship.

Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith

Fr. Robert Barron's comprehensive work goes straight to the core of the Catholic faith. He first examines the foundations of Christ's incarnation, life and ministry, and then works through the essentials of the Catholic tradition: from sacraments, worship and prayer, to Mary and the saints, and on to salvation, heaven and hell. Throughout this epic journey, Fr. Barron uses art, literature, personal stories, Scripture, theology, philosophy and history to present a complete picture of the Church to the world.

The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America

Stuck in a job he no longer found fulfilling, journalist Mike McIntyre felt his life was quickly passing him by. So one day he hit the road to trek from one end of the country to the other with little more than the clothes on his back and without a single penny in his pocket. Through his travels, he found varying degrees of kindness in strangers from all walks of life - and discovered more about people and values and life on the road in America than he'd ever thought possible.

The Hairy Hikers: A Coast-to-Coast Trek Along the French Pyrenees

Fuelled by a degree of mid-life crisis and the need to escape, albeit temporarily, the dull routine of modern life, David and Rob set out to walk from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, taking in French villages, beautiful scenery, and one of the most spectacular mountain ranges in Europe. Just about perfect – if you can put aside the inevitable conflict, drama, and unexpected tedium that results from two men spending over seven solid weeks in each other’s company!

Unreasonable Behaviour: An Autobiography

From the construction of the Berlin Wall through every conflict up to the Falklands War, photographer Don McCullin has left a trail of iconic images. At the Sunday Times Magazine in the 1960s, McCullin’s photography made him a new kind of hero.

The Universe Has Your Back: Transform Fear into Faith

In her latest book,
The Universe Has Your Back,
New York Times best-selling author Gabrielle Bernstein teaches listeners how to transform their fear into faith in order to live a divinely guided life. Each story and lesson in the book guides listeners to release the blocks to what they most long for: happiness, security, and clear direction. The lessons help listeners relinquish the need to control so they can relax into a sense of certainty and freedom.

The January Man: A Year of Walking Britain

In January 2006, a month or two after my father died, I thought I saw him again - a momentary impression of an old man, a little stooped, setting off for a walk in his characteristic fawn corduroys and shabby quilted jacket. After teenage rifts it was walking that brought us closer as father and son, and this ghost of Dad has been walking at my elbow since his death, as I have ruminated on his great love of walking, his prodigious need to do it - and how and why I walk myself.

On the Road with Kids

It's a life-changing trip. Take it! John Ahern had a high-flying job, big house, loving wife and two great kids. But if this was success, why did he sense he was failing as a husband and father? So John did something insane. He quit the corporate world and bought a busted-up camper-van online to chase an improbable dream: a year travelling together as a family...on the road with kids.

Into Africa: Africa by Motorcycle - Every Day an Adventure

A liberating motorcycle journey through Africa with descriptions of the amazing people and places, the joy of big skies and the open road, and the sometimes harrowing events that would shape destiny. Into Africa tells the story of a novice motorcyclist who takes on the challenge of riding the length of the continent just because, 'it seemed like a great idea’.

Where's the Next Shelter?

Where's the Next Shelter? is the true story of three travelers on the Appalachian Trail, a 2,000-mile hike that stretches from Georgia to Maine, told from the perspective of Gary Sizer, a seasoned backpacker and former marine who quickly finds himself humbled by the endeavor. If you long for the horizon or to sleep under the stars, then come along for the hike of a lifetime. All you have to do is take the first step.

Lost Among the Birds: Accidentally Finding Myself in One Very Big Year

Early in 2013 Neil Hayward was at a crossroads. He didn't want to open a bakery or whatever else executives do when they quit a lucrative but unfulfilling job. He didn't want to think about his failed relationship with 'the one' or his potential for ruining a new relationship with 'the next one'. And he almost certainly didn't want to think about turning 40. And so instead he went birding. Birding was a lifelong passion. It was only among the birds that Neil found a calm that had eluded him in the confusing world of humans.

Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart: An Adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail

Carrot Quinn fears that she's become addicted to the Internet. The city makes her numb, and she's having trouble connecting with others. In a desperate move, she breaks away from everything to walk 2,660 miles from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail. It will be her first long-distance hike.

Brazil

Michael Palin journeys to a vast country of unimaginable contrasts - Brazil. An economic powerhouse, it is host to a staggering variety of peoples. He starts his journey in the north, in the remote mountains and forests on the border with Venezuela, and finishes in the south at the legendary Iguaçu Falls. He travels by river-boat, float-plane and foot to visit tribes deep in the jungle, samples life in the agricultural and mining heartland of Brazil, experiences the modernism of Brasília and the heady mix of Rio de Janeiro, and ventures into the favelas.

Publisher's Summary

Watching in disbelief as his computer was struck by lightning in 2007, Harry Bucknall had no idea that the subsequent trail of events would lead him to Rome - five years later, on foot.

Following the Via Francigena, the ancient pilgrim path that dates back nearly 2,000 years, Harry walks through England, France, Switzerland, and Italy weaving a historical tapestry liberally colored with tales of angels and saints, emperors and kings, and war and revolution. He uncovers a little-known route that leads him through vineyards and villages, towns and cities and over rivers and mountains to the heart of the Eternal City, Saint Peter’s Basilica.

Like A Tramp, Like A Pilgrim is a joyous journey of Elizabethan proportion filled with anecdote, adventure, and mishap as Harry encounters the changing faces of a landscape suffused with history; yet his journey is perhaps most enriched by the extraordinary stories of those he meets - fellow pilgrims and locals alike - along the way.

I loved this to listen to while I was out on my own walks. Although I found the start a bit slow and heavy on the history details, I began to appreciate those details more as the book progressed, although sometimes I admit my brain switched off and I just appreciated the gentle rhythm of the talking. Harry seems to know his stuff, about history, architecture and more, but balanced this with plenty of detail about the pilgrimage and the people.

over the author's previous book - night and day! I was able to sustain interest in this one fairly effortlessly, and it was just about the right length as by the time he reached Italy I was ready for things to start wrapping up. Hiring a professional narrator made all the difference, even if the fellow bungled a New York accent (though that voice only lasted a few minutes); his pompous, sneering Spanish fellow was a hoot.

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